Exclusive: Cornered but unbound by nuclear pact, Israel reconsiders military action against Iran

As said before, watch what happens when Israel is backed into a corner. It is left no choice but to fight, and likely will preemptively for its existence.

 

Israeli official cites “sunset clause” in proposed comprehensive deal, which guarantees Iran a path into the nuclear club and may corner Israel into war.

WASHINGTON – Historic negotiations with Iran will reach an inflection point on Monday, as world powers seek to clinch a comprehensive deal that will, to their satisfaction, end concerns over the nature of its vast, decade-old nuclear program.

But reflecting on the deal under discussion with The Jerusalem Post on the eve of the deadline, Israel has issued a stark, public warning to its allies with a clear argument: Current proposals guarantee the perpetuation of a crisis, backing Israel into a corner from which military force against Iran provides the only logical exit.

Netanyahu Described as ‘Chickens**t’ by American Official

The Obama administration’s stalling plan has worked and now it is past the point of no return for Israel. It will be forced into a corner with no choice but to fight for its very existence and launch a preemptive strike, and likely alone. This will in turn put all the blame on Israel who will be painted and perceived as the unprovoked aggressor, and all the Obama administration has to do is sit back and point fingers.

Israel could also face a major assault from all angles and countries in the Middle East, but when its enemies are ready and fully stockpiled with weapons good enough to guarantee Israel physically exists no more. But for now, the endgame goal is to provoke them in acting first and appear as the bad guy for setting the entire region on fire. In the end, those who have ears that listen and eyes that see know what happens to those who forsake or attempt to divide Israel.

 

As tensions over construction continue, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg quotes U.S. officials who launched a verbal tirade against PM Netanyahu.

Is Washington taking off the gloves when it comes to Israel? Amid the latest tensions in U.S.-Israel relations, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic on Tuesday quoted unnamed officials in Washington who launched a verbal tirade against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

“The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickens**t,” the senior Obama administration official told Goldberg, who referred to Netanyahu as “the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most.”

“Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and ‘Aspergery,’” wrote Goldberg, who is considered close to President Barack Obama.

The Real Red Line in the Middle East

 

If ISIS attacks Jordan, neither the United States nor Israel will be able to stay out of the fray

There is a Sarajevo somewhere in Jordan. It lies well outside Amman, somewhere in the hostile terrain to the east or the north. Were the armed ISIS extremists — who now call themselves representatives of the Islamic State and soldiers of the new caliphate — to cross this line, the current conflict that engulfs Syria and Iraq would likely explode and grow more complex and costly by quantum degrees. This is not the sort of red line that is the product of an ill-considered, halfhearted burst of presidential bravado. This is the type of red line that triggers historic change and is worth considering as we mark the epoch-making events in Sarajevo that spawned World War I 100 years ago.

For now, the wars in Syria and Iraq seem almost to be inviting the United States to remain more or less on the sidelines. Once an amorphous mess, it has seemed to take on something of a shape and symmetry. In both countries today, alliances featuring the ruling governments working in collaboration with Iran and Russia are taking on the extremists. With the announcement this weekend of Russian planes and munitions being shipped to the government in Baghdad, the orchestrated bombings last week of ISIS targets by Syrian jets in Iraq, and the active role of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in both places, it almost seems like a traditional conflict with two sides vying against one another.

Further, with Moscow and Tehran willing to take up the fight against ISIS, it might be tempting for Washington to effectively sit this one out. After all, if the United States wants promises of political reform and the Iranians and Russians clearly don’t require it to intervene, the Iraqis will be even harder for America to deal with. Intransigent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki may simply opt for the support of Tehran and Moscow, as well as a tacit alliance with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, avoiding the hard work of creating a truly representative Iraqi government — which also happens to be the most self-serving possible choice. Unfortunately, for the world, the route of “letting others fight our battles for us” might be “easier” — but it’s exceptionally dangerous.

Fidel Castro says his economic system is failing

Another possible ‘misquoted’ remark that is surely in the future to be corrected, just like when he said communism didn’t work.

It was a casual remark over a lunch of salad, fish and red wine but future historians are likely to parse and ponder every word: “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us any more.”

Fidel Castro’s nine-word confession, dropped into conversation with a visiting US journalist and policy analyst, undercuts half a century of thundering revolutionary certitude about Cuban socialism.

That the island’s economy is a disaster is hardly news but that the micro-managing “maximum leader” would so breezily acknowledge it has astonished observers.

U.S. leaders had better heed Israel’s warnings on Iran

On the one hand, we cannot exclude the possibility that the senior Israeli officials briefing us are bluffing. On the other hand, what we journalists hear in closed rooms is staggering.

…

In his Bloomberg columns, Goldberg monitors the unfolding Mideast drama with precision and insight. And yet, distinguished columnists such as Roger Cohen of the New York Times dismiss Goldberg’s information and analysis.  They claim that an Israeli attack on Iran (with no American support and cooperation) is insane and therefore would never happen.

Personally, I hope Cohen is right.  An Israeli air strike on the Islamic Republic is the worst way to stop its nuclear project.  But up to this point, all diplomatic attempts to stop the Ayatollahs have failed.  Recently imposed sanctions are biting, but they do not really discourage the Shiite fanatics.  By 2013, Israel might lose its military potency vis-à-vis Iran.

So temperatures are rising in Jerusalem.  As time is running out the Goldberg scenario becomes more and more likely.  What he hears from his sources, and what I hear from my sources, lead us to believe the coming summer is a crucial one.  If senior Israelis are now shouting gewald, American decision makers and opinion leaders had better pay close attention.

Full article: U.S. leaders had better heed Israel’s warnings on Iran (Haaretz)